The present invention relates generally to printing operations, and more particularly to ink management control in such printing operations.
In setting up a printing system, any number of printheads of different types and manufacturers can be used together or separately to meet a variety of different printing applications. Although each application may use the printheads differently, they will have in common the delivery of the ink. One problem to be solved in the prior art is to keep the ink delivery aspects of the printing system modular and scalable so that ink delivery does not have to be redeveloped every time a new application is created.
The present invention comprises, in one embodiment, a method for ink management in an ink management system for use with a master controller, comprising: receiving configuration information for one or more of ink pens, reservoirs, printheads, and ink level measurement method designation; receiving master controller commands; reading data from system sensors and reading and writing data to and from smart chips associated with elements in the system and a non-volatile memory associated with an ink management controller in the ink management system; and independently taking an action in response to data from one or more of a smart chip or a sensor.
The present invention comprises in a further embodiment, an ink management system for use with a host, comprising: a different smart chip associated with each one of a plurality of reservoirs or printheads; non-volatile memory associated with the ink management system; and a processor for receiving configuration information for one or more of ink pens, reservoirs, printheads, and an ink level measurement method designation and for receiving master controller commands, and reading data from sensors and reading and writing data to and from the smart chips and the non-volatile memory in the ink management system, and processing data from at least one smart chip or sensor, determining if the data meets a criteria, and if the data meets the criteria then independently taking an action.
In a further embodiment of the present invention, an ink management system is provided for use with a master controller, comprising: means for receiving configuration information for one or more of ink pens, reservoirs, printheads, and ink level measurement method designation; means for receiving master controller commands; means for reading data from system sensors and reading and writing data to and from smart chips associated with elements in the system a non-volatile memory associated with an ink management controller in the ink management system; and means for independently taking an action in response to data from one or more of a smart chip or a sensor.